Thursday, January 14, 2010

Odds and ends

El Mundo reports on the result of Ecuador’s easing of its visa requirements: a huge increase in the number of Cubans (and others) in Ecuador.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington is holding a forum on January 22: “Opportunities for Improving U.S.-Cuba Engagement on Health Policy.”Description here (pdf).

In response to the Obama Administration’s decision to subject travelers from Cuba to extra security measures upon arrival in the United States – part of the U.S. government’s response to the underwear bomber – Cuba’s foreign ministry issued a rebuttal to Washington’s “state sponsor of terrorism” designation.

Speaking of extra security measures to protect us from state sponsors of terror, I wonder if Homeland Security is changing its treatment of Cubans who arrive without visas on Florida beaches or Texas border crossings. Or is this just about airports and aviation security?

Tom Garofalo of the New America Foundation looks at the choice the U.S. government has made in Cuba: unleashing the USAID bureaucracy rather than unleashing American civil society.He references his experience working with Caritas Cubana.

I saw some really anti-Cuban (immigrant) stuff on EcuaVisa TV a few weeks ago. Crime, mafias, unemployed, taking jobs, and the rest... 2,300 a month. That is a lot of Cuban exit permits (Tarjeta Blanca) that we are always told are nearly impossible to obtain.

I don't think Garofalo is right that the "USAID bureaucracy" has been unleashed in Cuba. The latest cold warrior is the USAID private subcontractor.

What Garofolo does nail is the idiocy and ineffectiveness of claiming to help the Cuban people with the caveat being that "(project) and the Cuban government may NOT find common cause in the solution of common problems." This is the impossible. This is the fear. This is why the money gets wasted each and every time.